How
It Was Done in ParisRussian
Émigré Literature and French Modernism Leonid
Livak

“It was said a long time ago that each human
being had two homelands: one’s ownand France.”Georgii Adamovich, Friends and Enemies

Here, reintroduced into literary circulation, is an ignored
yet rich and original page in Russian literary historythe
“unnoticed generation” of Russian writers who took
up residence in France after the Bolshevik coup of 1917. Leonid
Livak analyzes the position of these writers in the context of
French modernist literature, examining the ways in which French
literary life influenced émigré artistic identities
and oeuvre. The book challenges commonly accepted notions of
émigré isolation from French literature and culture
and is instrumental in reaching a fuller understanding of the
cultural mechanisms involved in the effort by an expatriate community
to carry on a creative existence.

“Livak
is extremely intelligent and focused, and in everything he does
combines the best qualities of a traditional Soviet philological
background . . . with a stellar American-style grounding in critical
thinking.”David M. Bethea, University of WisconsinMadison

Leonid Livak is assistant professor of Slavic languages
and literatures at the University of Toronto. He is editor of
the annual scholarly review From the Other Shore: Russian
Writers Abroad, Past and Present.

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